The dorsal fin is short and consists of thirteen to fourteen soft rays.

The dorsal surface of this fish is blackish, with a few dark-coloured transverse stripes, and the flanks and belly are silvery.

[3] This fish is one of several that dominate the fauna of the Southern California Bight and which tend to make diel vertical migrations, rising to near the surface to feed at night and descending again to remain quiescent by day.

[3] The photophores appear during the course of metamorphosis from larval to juvenile fish; these may be involved in camouflage, species or sexual identification or prey attraction.

This fish feed on copepods, krill and sergestid shrimps, crustaceans which also tend to make diel vertical migrations.